CVE-2025-59478

Memory Safety in F5 Big-Ip Advanced Firewall Manager 15.1.0 – 15.1.10.8

Memory Safety

Published

15 October 2025

Modified

22 October 2025

Patch / advisory

View advisory

CVSS Score v4 8.7

Click a component to see what it means

Raw vector

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

EPSS Score 0.0034 27th percentile

Risk Priority 44 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-59478 is a high-severity Access of Uninitialized Pointer (CWE-824) vulnerability in F5 Big-Ip Advanced Firewall Manager. Its CVSS base score is 8.7 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 27th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-15 (Development Process, Standards, and Tools) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-34653

Vulnerability Data

When a BIG-IP AFM denial-of-service (DoS) protection profile is configured on a virtual server, undisclosed requests can cause the Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM) process to terminate. Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.

CWE(s): CWE-824

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation

Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.

attack.mitre.org →

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access

Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.

attack.mitre.org →

T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution

Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.

attack.mitre.org →

T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement

Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.

attack.mitre.org →

T1211 Exploitation for Stealth Stealth

Adversaries may exploit vulnerabilities to evade detection by hiding activity, suppressing logging, or operating within trusted or unmonitored components.

attack.mitre.org →

T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access

Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.

attack.mitre.org →

Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-22281Same product: F5 Big-Ip Advanced Firewall Manager

CVE-2024-33608Same product: F5 Big-Ip Advanced Firewall Manager

CVE-2026-39458Same product: F5 Big-Ip Advanced Firewall Manager

CVE-2024-21771Same product: F5 Big-Ip Advanced Firewall Manager

CVE-2024-21763Same product: F5 Big-Ip Advanced Firewall Manager

CVE-2025-41431Same product: F5 Big-Ip Advanced Firewall Manager

CVE-2023-22842Same product: F5 Big-Ip Advanced Firewall Manager

CVE-2025-58096Same product: F5 Big-Ip Advanced Firewall Manager

CVE-2024-23982Same product class: WAF / load balancer

CVE-2025-24312Same product: F5 Big-Ip Advanced Firewall Manager

Affected Assets

big-ip advanced firewall manager

17.5.0 · 15.1.0 — 15.1.10.8 · 17.1.0 — 17.1.3

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation good match

Developer testing and evaluation can discover uninitialized pointer accesses through static analysis, dynamic testing, or fuzzing before deployment.

SA-15 Development Process, Standards, and Tools partial match

Requiring documented development processes and tools enables use of analyzers or coding standards that identify uninitialized pointer defects.

SA-8 Security and Privacy Engineering Principles partial match

Security engineering principles can mandate memory-safety practices and language choices that structurally avoid uninitialized pointer use.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match

prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly prevent uninitialized pointer bugs via coding standards, analysis, and reviews, but eliminating this single weakness only partially fulfills the broader control.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match

finds

Security testing can detect uninitialized pointer usage before release.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match

prevents

Secure development life cycle mandates practices that reduce uninitialized pointer defects.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match

degrades

Application security requirements can specify pointer initialization rules.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match

degrades

Secure architecture principles discourage unsafe pointer handling.